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The market has had its run- is it time for commodities?

I’m re-blogging this post from January 2014 in light of my recent decision to buy some SLV (Silver ETF) and in case anyone out there is in need of a little commodity diversification to their portfolio…

In an effort to gain a basic understanding of commodity investments, I recently read “The Little Book of Commodity Investing” by John Stephenson. I currently hold some commodity exposure (NEM, SCCO, and RIG) to give my portfolio a little diversity and I’m interested to learn more given the general consensus that many commodity investments have a relatively low correlation factor with the stock market and bonds and tend to thrive in low growth environments (like the 70’s when commodities had their big bull run). Reading the book sparked a considerable amount of interesting ideas and thoughts, but given my relative ignorance of the topic, I will hold off on offering any personal opinion in this post and simply share some “power notes” I took from the book:

-One of the largest bull cases for commodities is that if China decides to lighten their allocation to U.S. treasuries, commodities is a…